Italy Copter Deal: 10 Shady Facts

10 shady facts about another defence scandal that is threatening to blow up in the face of the UPA government in the run-up to the 2014 general elections

1. THE DEAL

On Feb 8, 2010, the defence ministry signed a 3,546cr deal to buy a dozen helicopters for Indian VVIPs. UK-based AgustaWestland, subsidiary of Italian military consortium Finmeccanica, was to supply AW101 helicopters

2. STATUS

3 of these helicopters have arrived in India. Three more coming by May-June . Entire fleet to be in place by March 2014

3. USERS

President, PM, VP, and other top dignitaries

4. WHO CLEARED IT

Cabinet Committee on Security headed by PM Manmohan Singh. It was vetted by defence ministry under A K Antony and finance ministry under Pranab Mukherjee

5. THE ALLEGATION - 1

Italian investigators suspect a kickback of up to 51 million euros (about 350cr). Of this, up to 30 million euros may have been routed through Christian Michel, a UK-based alleged middleman, back to Italy for payments to politicians and others

6. THE ALLEGATION - 2

The AW-101 helicopters, armed with self-defence systems like missile-approach warners, chaff and flare dispensers and directed infra-red electronic counter-measures to protect the VVIPs on board, were pitted against the American Sikorsky's S-92 Superhawks during extensive field trials held in India in 2008. The US firm had later claimed the trials were unfairly biased against it, but India had gone ahead with the AW-101 contract.

7. THE ALLEGATION - 3

It had also emerged that some of the technical parameters in the VVIP helicopter contract had been tweaked, which could have helped the AW-101 to qualify for the project. For instance, the earlier requirement for the choppers to be able to fly at an altitude of 6,000-metre was later reduced to 4,500-metre. As it happened, the Sikorsky chopper could not meet even this requirement, but the AW-101 sailed through.

8. THE ALLEGATION - 4

The deal was signed because of a forceful push by the Special Protection Group (SPG), the elite corps which provides proximate security to Prime Minister, and the Indian Air Force (IAF), which wanted to replace its ageing Russian-origin VVIP helicopters, despite the defence ministry's initial wariness and stiff competition from Americans.

9. UNDER SCANNER

Christian Michel and Swiss citizen Guido Haschke suspected to be key middlemen. The names of lawyer Gautam Khaitan, Sanjeev Tyagi (cousin of a former IAF chief), and a firm , Aeromatrix, also allegedly figure in taped conversations

10. ARRESTED

Finmeccanica chairman and CEO Giuseppe Orsi arrested, and 3 others, including AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini, placed under house arrest. Probe could be linked to Italian politics, with the country going to polls later this month